Birthday Week: Conquer Kaos with a Skylanders Birthday Party

A few of you have been asking in our previous Skylanders posts for ideas on what to do for a Skylanders birthday party. Couple that with the fact that I’m planning a party for my soon-to-be-seven Skylanders fanatic, and my tech gears have been turning. Here are some of my ideas and I invite you to add your own. With our hive mind, the Skylands will be saved from birthday Kaos!

My daughter and I tend to identify with some of the elements over others, me Undead and her Air, and that is the thread that carries through my party planning.

Invitations

With a little bit of Photoshop trickery, I was able to swap my daughter’s name in for Spyro’s. Sure it’s not my finest digital work, but it’s enough to convince a group of kids. Stick that logo into an Evite and I’m good to go! For those of you who admirably kick it old school and send out invitations, the element icons from the logo are easy enough to draw to adorn your invitation.

Decorations

Following the same icon drawing idea, grab balloons in the various colors of the elements and doodle the element icon on with a marker. Group the balloons to create element stations around your home or party space.

Name Tags

On their way in the door, have guests make name tags where they choose their Skylander name, their element, and their power. They can choose an existing Skylander, but judging from our recent writing contest, kids have no trouble coming up with Skylanders of their own invention.

Games

Plan a game or activity for each of the elements. Depending on the size of your party, you can either set up stations or have the kids hang out together as they transition from one game to the next.

• Earth: Head to Michaels or your local gardening store to buy cheap clay pots. Provide paints or Sharpies (at your own risk) and have the kids decorate the pots in the theme of their favorite element or character.
• Tech: Have the kids put together some Snap Circuits or wire up some potato batteries.
• Air: Divide kids into teams and see which team can keep a balloon afloat the longest without touching the balloon, only blowing it.
• Undead: This is a tough one. Zombie face painting, perhaps? Pin the femur on the skeleton? Or have the kids draw the scariest undead monsters they can imagine.
• Water: If it’s a warm weather party, water balloons are the go-to game here. If not, how about some watercolor battle scenes?
• Fire: Seeing as how you don’t want to burn the party to the ground, sparklers are always a crowd-pleaser. Or, save the fire element to be the candles on the birthday cake.
• Magic: Teach kids a simple magic trick, like the classic magnetic pencil.
• Life: Plant seeds in the pots that are now dry from the Earth activity. Voilà! Party favors.

Cake

To stick with the elements theme, you can decorate cupcakes in the colors and icons of the eight elements, or you can go all out and make a Portal of Power cake topped with a real Skylander for your birthday boy or girl. Have a look at Flickr for some inspiration, and watch this mom’s how-to.

Please add more ideas in the comments! Together we can plan the best party ever.